Wind Concerns Ontario is a province-wide advocacy organization whose mission is to provide information on the potential impact of industrial-scale wind power generation on the economy, human health, and the natural environment.

Ontario mayor to Wynne government: take action to protect residents from turbine noise now

The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change has failed to regulate wind turbines for safety, mayor says. A full investigation is necessary

It’s been years since the Canadian Auto Workers union, now UNIFOR, allowed a wind turbine to be built at its education and recreation centre in Port Stanley — and it’s been years of complaints from local residents about the noise and vibration from the wind turbine.

What’s been done? Nothing.

More than 300 complaints have been lodged with the Ontario government and UNIFORS, to no avail. Promises to investigate and follow up have not been fulfilled.

The Mayor of the Town of Saugeen Shores says enough is enough; the government must do its duty and take action on this situation, now.

Last week, he wrote a letter to the Office of the Ombudsman, with a formal complaint about the government inaction in this matter, detailing all the broken promises and the failure to meet its mandate to the people of Ontario. Read the letter here.

Absolutely unreasonable

Mayor Mike Smith wrote, it is “absolutely unreasonable for our community to have to continue to wait until spring of next year in hope that an audit of this turbine’s operation will finally be undertaken voluntarily by the proponent. At the time of writing we are advised that as many as 328 complaints have been filed relating to the operation of this turbine. If this audit is not done until June 2017, it will come four years and three months after the earliest potentially non-compliant test result …”

How many complaints must be filed? Smith asks, and how many more questionable test results filed before the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change finally takes action?

The MOECC has failed

The situation is indicative, the Mayor says, of “the larger failure of the MOECC to fulfill its role in regulating and overseeing the operation of industrial wind turbines in the Province of Ontario.”

He concludes by requesting a detailed investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman.

My whole hometown of Forest, Ontario is surrounded by turbines. My friends home/property is surrounded by them and looks like a turbine theme park, non of which are owned by her. We hear the closest turbine which is about 3km away on certain nights. My girlfriend hears them 24/7 and no one, NO ONE gives a crap.

Below is a message on WCO Facebook. The key to achieving a breakthrough appears to be with residents who are refusing to leave their homes and willing to fight for their rights. Rural residents, being forced to leave their homes is as wrong as the lack of protection given to the First Nations, Metis and Innuit in Canada.
1 · Yesterday at 5:49am
Wind Concerns Ontario
Wind Concerns Ontario Several things are missing from this interesting analysis: Health Canada chose to study “mature” wind power projects which meant that most of the people severely disturbed by the noise and LFN were already gone, and second, there were over 400 addresses selected which could not be studied because the houses were vacant or not there any longer (among other reasons). This is incredible, but the study design did not allow for followup. It would have been very interesting if our government, n the interest of public health, had investigated why houses were abandoned, or purchased and razed.